All cameras these days have a screen on the back for framing and viewing photos, but only some possess a viewfinder. Viewfinders allow you to shoot in bright sunlight—a potentially major factor depending on how much outdoor shooting you plan to do. They also use somewhat less power than LCD screens.
All SLRs possess a viewfinder, while only a minority of compact cameras and mirrorless cameras include this feature. There are two major types of viewfinders: optical and electronic.
There are two types of viewfinders: optical (OVF) and electronic (EVF). Electronic viewfinders use a tiny electronic display much like the larger LCD screen on the back of all cameras, whereas optical viewfinders use mirrors and prisms to represent the view of a scene.
An advantage of electronic viewfinders is you get to see exactly what the camera's sensor sees and your view of a scene is never obstructed when taking a photo (your view is momentarily blocked when taking photos on DSLR cameras). Some cameras also augment the EVF display in various ways, such as by highlighting areas in focus (‘peaking’ autofocus), simulating the motion blur you'll see if you take a photo and automatically boosting brightness when shooting very dark scenes.
Since the image in an optical viewfinder relies on the actual light passing through a camera rather than a digital representation, they offer a few unique benefits. Optical viewfinders provide much better clarity, better dynamic range (roughly, ability to resolve scenes with extreme differences in brightness) and an instantaneous view of the action lacking the delay found in some EVF systems. With some exceptions, typically optical viewfinders are found on SLRs, while viewfinders on compact and mirrorless cameras are of the EVF variety.
Conventional camera viewfinders provide images directly to the eye of a camera user using a separate optical system disposed to the side or above the optical path provided by the main camera lens and image sensor. Modern mobile devices and DSLRs have electronic display screens instead of viewfinders for previewing images. It is desired to have a digital camera that provides a camera user the option to preview images on the display screen or through a viewfinder that neither compromises display nor device width and height. It is also desired to have a viewfinder that works in harmony with the display screen of the camera and not against it.
A hot shoe on a camera body typically provides support and electrical contact for an electronic flash attachment. In the past, an incandescent flash lamp or bulb coupled to a hot shoe provided a sole illumination source for capturing DSLR images with sufficient brightness to avoid long exposures and/or wide apertures that often produce images that are motion blurred or lack focal sharpness. It is desired to have a camera that includes an illumination system with greater directional, temporal and/or spectral versatility than that provided by a single xenon or krypton broadband flash source. It is further desired for a hot shoe mechanism to have greater utility to a camera user than a single flash option.
Adjusting precapture settings and postcapture editing on typical DSLRs and mobile camera-enabled devices involve the inconvenience of taking one hand off the camera to make touch screen or button actuated adjustments to imaging parameters that tend to temporarily destabilize the camera as an image capture device or as an viewer. It is desired to have a camera that allows camera users to smoothly and conveniently adjust precapture settings and perform postcapture editing.
Digital cameras are often equipped with video capture capability. The sound capture with typical video imaging on mobile devices and DSLRs is usually poor, particularly when imaging videos in crowded, noisy environments. It is desired to have enhanced audio quality for videos captured with a handheld or otherwise mobile digital cameras.